The 2012 college-football season is just a stone's throw away and looks to be one of the more anticipated seasons in recent history. Traditional powers will once again rise, and conferences look to be more competitive than ever.

The season is also highlighted by a slew of weeks that will feature top-tier teams dueling for bragging rights, as well as BCS postseason positioning.

There are 16 weeks, including conference-championship games. Only eight dates made this list, though.

Sept. 1, 2012

While the college-football season officially kicks off two days prior to Sept. 1, the real action doesn't get going for most of college football's top teams until Saturday.

Not only is this the first Saturday fans get to tailgate, but it is also the first time we will see many of the top teams in action. Oregon and LSU, two of the favorites to reach the BCS National Championship Game, will both debut their new quarterbacks, while preseason No. 1 USC tries to show why it is back on top of the college-football world.

This week also will feature what is surely to be one of the more exciting games of the 2012 college-football season. Alabama, last year's national champion, takes on a rejuvenated Michigan squad in the Cowboys Stadium Classic.

By this point in the season, the big boys should be separating themselves from the pretenders.

Not only do we have one of the best unheard-of rivalries in college football between a talented Washington team and heavyweight Oregon squad, but LSU also takes its talents to The Swamp, where the Bayou Bengals will be tested by a Florida team that should give them a run for their money.

Yet, these games are just a preview of the great games this week boasts.

Georgia battles it out against South Carolina, while Nebraska and Ohio State go toe-to-toe to determine who makes a second-half run. West Virginia also takes its potent offense to Austin, where the Mountaineers will be met by a Texas team that is all about redemption.

Oct. 13, 2012

This week kicks some serious butt because it features numerous games that could very well spoil the hopes of BCS national-championship contenders.

USC travels to Washington to take on the Huskies at CenturyLink Field. Though USC did trump the Huskies in its last contest, Seattle has not been friendly to USC in the past. Could there be a huge upset in store?

Besides that game, South Carolina heads to LSU with the hopes of taking down the reigning SEC champs and proving that they are among the best.

The Red River Rivalry once again will have important implications on the BCS-championship race, and Stanford heads to Notre Dame, a team looking to prove it is once again among the college-football elite.

Nov. 3, 2012

There is absolutely no doubt about it, Nov. 3 will be one of the biggest dates in college football should Oregon, USC, Alabama and LSU all perform to the levels they are capable of and expected to.

If each team takes care of all their prior opponents—as they should—this day will feature not just one, but two "Games of the Century," giving the winning teams the front seat in the race towards the BCS national championship.

Sure, there are plenty of other great weeks in the college-football season, but there is just something about Nov. 3 that has many fans already sitting on the edges of their seats.

This date is extremely important in determining whether or not USC, Oregon and Alabama have it in them to recover from their games the previous week, which are sure to drain all of their physical and emotional reserves. Each team must demonstrate the ability to evade their trap games and continue forward, no matter the result of the prior game.

The big game of this week is Arkansas going head-to-head with South Carolina. This game has the potential to weed out one of the SEC contenders while vaulting the other high up into the BCS national-championship race.